


Hunting Flames

by Lilmia_Casand



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, F/M, Just some fun ideas about humanity from the eyes of a human, M/M, what has changed and whats stays the same is up to interpretation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-17 11:16:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 3,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29840718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lilmia_Casand/pseuds/Lilmia_Casand
Summary: Brianna Oliver hunts supernatual beings, but she keeps meeting monsters that seem a little to human, sparing them one day saves her life- but in the end, who was the monster and who wasn't?
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Calypso/Leo Valdez, Hazel Levesque/Frank Zhang, Jason Grace/Piper McLean, Nico di Angelo/Will Solace
Kudos: 5





	1. Chapter 1

Brianna Oliver knew about the things that plagued the world, about the creatures that lived in the night. She knew how to hunt them and fight them and kill them, she’d been doing it since she was small. At the moment she was tracking a fire spirit, they were often confused with phoenixes in their markings, but they were not benevolent birds but demons of ash and fire. This one had burned down a human’s workshop just two towns over from where Brianna had been cleaning up a werewolf infestation. 

Clearly an idiot, you don’t kill near a hunter, especially not near Brianna Oliver. The spirit had disappeared into the mountains and she followed. After almost a full week of tracking she’d finally found it- only it appeared human, and was sobbing tears of water, clutching his, not its, knees to its chest and rocking back and forth.

She caught sight of its face, and  _ holy frick _ it was the boy who had died in the fire with his mother. But her gem pulled her to him, he  _ was  _ the fire spirit. She felt her heart clench, a half-spirit, she’d only met two, one of them had done their best to be human, the other had embraced the monster.

She drew her sword, the boy was even younger than she was, she didn’t want to kill him, from the tears she could only guess an accidental finding of his dark powers. The boy would have to live with the pain- she just had to make sure he knew that he had to stay human, or he would be killed.

“So you started the fire.” she states. He jumps, hands held in front of him like he could hold her off like that. “No!” he gasped, he was even younger than she’d originally guessed. The sick feeling in her gut twisted and the stone in her circlet tugged towards the boy.

“It was the dirt lady! She set the fire to kill me or my mom and then she locked the door…” the tears started streaming, “I thought at least me and mama would be together- but… but then- the fire didn’t burn me!” he started sobbing again, and fire burst from his palms and raced up his arms, so that was his defense.

“I didn’t see any trace of an earth spirit.” Brianna said calmly, never setting her sword down, if that was what the boy had to believe to think he hadn’t caused it, she’d let that be, so long as he knew to stop with the fire- The more one used magic, the more monster one became.

“That’s because she was made of earth, she was the earth, she was asleep, I don’t- I don’t think she was actually there… she said, said that I would be useless without my mother, that I would not fight for my father’s side. I’m, I just, please don’t kill me!” she looked him over, he didn’t seem too dangerous other than the flaming skin- she lowered her sword.

“What’s your name?” she asked.

“Leo, I’m Leo Valdez.” he replied.

“No more fire, go live a normal life, but if you use magic again, know that other hunters won’t be so lenient, and neither will I. Magic corrupts, magic is evil, if you keep the fire at bay you can be normal.”

He nodded stiffly, but there was sudden warriness in his eyes- if she had looked harder maybe she would have seen the fact that he wasn’t one to give up the fire he’d been gifted with, he was simply going to avoid hunters now. But Brianna Oliver would never understand why anyone would not want to be human, even with half spirits, she thought it a matter of which side was stronger, the monster or the human.

Something she could never, would never understand, is the fact that for the most part, the real monsters are all human.


	2. 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Annabeth and Percy!

Brianna caught wind that a blond girl with impossible grey eyes was disappearing at odd hours. The grey eyes could mean any number of things, cloud spirit, earth spirit, fairy, werewolf, and vampire. Brianna went to have a look. The girl, Annabeth, lived in a fishing village and seemed over-interested in her education. From the way she’d simply shown up as a baby at her father’s doorstep, it was suspected that she was a changeling.  
Brianna felt a slight tug to her from her circlet, but overall she read as human, maybe a descendent of a monster, but human herself. Disappearing at odd hours probably meant she was meeting a secret boyfriend, Brianna would stay out of it, but the area was just drowning in magic, she had to find the source.  
After a few days of looking she followed Annabeth on one of her outings, she came down to the beach and Brianna was ready to give it up as a lost cause, the beach was a romantic place and she didn’t want to see a pair of teenagers kissing.  
But something made her stop, wait a moment, and then she saw it, a mermaid- no, merman, rising from the surf, water started swirling around his sea-green tail with inky black spots to match his hair, and suddenly he was standing there with a pair of blue swimming shorts. Something in Brianna was waiting for the girl to run, but instead Annabeth rushed to the merman and cried out “Percy!”  
“Did you see that Wise Girl? I finally got the tail working! Now I can swim even faster, and maybe stop getting so many side looks at the palace.” Annabeth laughed and hugged him. “I still can’t believe you learned magic just to be a mermaid.” he scoffed, “A merMAN thank you.” “Sure.” she replied and bopped him on the nose.  
Then she paused, “Does this mean I can finally come? You said you were waiting until you could use the mist well enough to ACTUALLY give me gills… And I mean-” He smiled at her, grin bright as the moon about their heads, “Yeah, no need to worry about you drowning when I fall asleep now.” He squinted, obviously concentrating, and then three tiny slits appeared on either side of Annabeth’s neck.  
She smiled, “So, where are you taking me first?” she asked coyly, “We’re visiting Leo and Calypso!” he said grinning wildly. Making Annabeth laugh, “Did you do that on purpose?” she asked, “Maaaayyyyybbbbeeeee.” he said, a shite eating grin on his face. And with that he dragged her into the waves, tail forming in a swirl of water.  
Brianna never even drew her sword, but mermen and mermaids were beyond her, she was a land hunter, she wasn’t good at dealing with the monsters of the sea. She should have intervened, but mermaids and mermen were good at luring people into the waves where they were drowned and eaten.  
With a defeated sigh she left, guilt wracking her brain, she should have stepped in once she saw the merman, and now a girl was dead because she hesitated.  
Her mind simply didn’t even touch on the fact that the boy had implied that he was a human who had turned into a merman, or that he gave the girl gills, or that they had obviously been meeting for a long time.  
But then again, Brianna didn’t know she was one of the monsters- because monsters tend to be far more human than she’d like.


	3. 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Witches and Shapeshifters

She ran into the witch by accident, she’d just finished dealing with a vampire nest, and found that someone had already dealt with the ones who’d killed in the town.   
She was walking in the forest, swinging her sword, a relaxed grin on her face as she headed away from the town, more lives saved, more monsters killed. And then she burst into a clearing and saw a dark-skinned girl with her hands outstretched, gems and gold dancing in the air around her.  
Instantly Brianna rushed at the girl with her sword raised, when she was hit from the side- by a bear of all things. She turned to face the bear, crouched down in a fighting stance, the bear shifted into a boy with a boy and arrow notched and pointed at her face. “Leave Hazel the frick alone.” He growled.  
The girl was now facing her, sword drawn, the gems and gold still swirling in the air around her. “I’m just trying to find a necklace my friend lost here a while ago.” she said placatingly, “I dealt with the vampires that had gone rogue and everything, I’m not the enemy here.”  
Brianna eyed the shape-shifter, she didn’t have backup or any advantage on her side, she could deal with a Witch on their own, with a bit of luck or planning she could deal with a shape-shifter to, but both? Not without help.  
Suddenly a silver chain with a blue stone clasped on the end came flying out of the ground, the witch grabbed it, letting the gold and precious stones fall to the ground and sink back under it. She nodded at the shape-shifter, “Let’s get out of here Frank.” she told him.  
He nodded and shifted into a dragon, the witch grabbed his tail and scrambled up onto his back before he took off- Hunter glaring at them as they disappeared into the distance.  
She hated it when the monsters out-matched her.  
She turned and ran back to the village, just incase the Witch and Shape-shifter came back, she’d be there and ready, with backup on the way. Because monsters always came back.


	4. 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason!

She met him in a city, smaller monsters tended to live in cities, bigger ones out in small towns. He was blond haired and blue eyed with a scar on his lip. He had a gold coin in his hand she’d never seen the likes of before. She recognized him as a hunter almost instantly.  
“Here for a break or a hunt?” she asked as she sat down across from him, he glanced up at her, “I’m here to pick up my girlfriend, we’re moving to an island where maybe we can finally have a half-way decent life.” Brianna couldn’t understand why someone would leave this life, sure it was hard and you could die, but if you didn’t fight someone else would die and it would always be your fault.  
He flipped the coin- letting it land on the table with a clatter and she felt a tug from her circlet in his direction. That didn’t make sense, he was a hunter, wasn’t he? The coin gave it away- just like her circlet gave her away.  
Just because she didn’t see a sword didn’t mean he didn’t have a dagger, and her circlet hummed at the coin, they were made of the same sort of gold. She simply had a soul stone embedded in hers.  
“So what’s your name?” she asked.  
He seemed to think before answering, “I’m Jason, Jason Grace.” Brianna nodded, a strong name, something she could understand.  
“I’m Brianna Oliver.” she said, his eyes seemed to flash, she couldn’t help but smile, he’d recognized her name. Suddenly she heard a “Jason! Jason!” “I’ve got to go.” he said.  
She nodded and waved as he left.  
He didn’t wave back.  
As she called a waiter over she forgot about the tug from her gem that whispered of wind and open skys and storms and lightning- for a moment she forgot that monsters are so often human.


	5. 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Crash Landing

Her sword was stuck in the dragon’s neck, the dragon would be dead in seconds and they were in midair, no where near land, she was going to die. She swung herself up on top of the dragon and held on- and then everything was dipping down and moving to fast-

The world was warm, far to warm, hadn’t she fallen into the sea? Shouldn’t she be cold and frozen through? Sinking to the sea floor? She was dry as well, that was weird, she tried to open her eyes only to find that she couldn’t. So she’d washed up on a beach then? Moving slightly she felt the sand shift under her- she’d made it out alive. She could feel all of her body so there was that, and everything ached but only her wrist hurt.

Actually now that she thought about it, her wrist  _ burned _ . She opened her mouth to scream from the pain but she couldn’t make a sound. And now her throat was on fire too. Lifting her uninjured hand she rubbed her eyes, they’d crusted shut with salt.

After a few minutes of agony she managed to open them and glance down at her limp arm. Her wrist was broken, like really broken, looking at it made her want to vomit- and she was used to blood and gore. She tore at her shirt and wrapped it up before collapsing back into the sand, to tired to move.

She found herself drifting in a sea of black pain and burning ice.

She was still in the sand, she was on fire, like stars pressing into her skin. Eyes closed she sat up slowly, and agony ripped through her stomach-  _ huh, it hadn’t hurt like that before _ . Opening her eyes brought a wave of dizziness, maybe she wasn’t making it out of this one after all.

Her stomach had a scabbed over slash, and the realization cut through reality, she knew the pattern cut into her skin, she’d been slashed with her own sword. She wanted to sob and rage at the world but everything hurt too much and she didn’t have tears to cry.

Lifting herself to her knees she pulled through the pain dancing across her skin and the fire in her throat making itself known, and she stood up. She stood tall and proud, she could make it, she just had to find water first. She took a hesitant step and the world came crashing down, spinning and tilting and the sand was pressed up against her and she reached out to catch herself- and her arm caught fire.

She opened her eyes to blinding pain, she guessed she’d only been out an hour at most, and she thanked whatever god was watching her for that. Using her uninjured arm she dragged herself up the beach, there were trees there, maybe there was water- or even just shade.

As it turned out, there was water, a small pond with flowers growing around it like a garden. She stuck out her tongue to taste it and found a lack of salt or even dirts. It was the clearest, cleanest water she’d ever seen. She didn't spare a thought to magic or creatures that lured people to their death with such things- she was too tired.

She threw herself into the pond, water all the way up to her chest as she greedily drank her fill. She was burning up and the water was cool and now maybe when she woke up next she could clean her wounds. Leaning her head back, safely out of the reach of the water, she made a small sound- she never closed her eyes, the world simply went black.

She woke up cold and wet and nowhere near as thirsty as before, hauling herself out of the water she drank as much as she could before unwrapping her wrist, wincing at every movement. It still looked horrible, she did her best to slot it back into place, although the sounds made her gag, then she washed it in the water and did her best to clean the makeshift bandage without jostling her injured hand at all. The water wasn’t the clearest now, reddish-brown with cleaned blood and stained with flecks of sand and dirt.

Carefully she rewrapped it. Pulling off the remains of her shirt she pulled it through the water, hoping to get the worst of the blood and grit off of it. Finally she pulled it back over her head and twisted it into a sling. She didn’t have her jacket as far as she could tell, or her shoes, her necklace was gone and one of her earrings had been ripped out. Her circlet sat snug against her forehead as always.

She washed her face and began checking for other injuries. Other than the wrist and her stomach, it looked like she mostly had bruises. She thanked her lucky stars and layed down for a while longer.

She closed her eyes and decided everything else could wait until tomorrow.

She woke up being carried by someone she couldn’t quite see, she’d been rescued! She closed her eyes with a sigh of relief.


	6. 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meeting the Team

She was in a room with open windows and a wood floor, curtains moved in a faint wind. With a groan Brianna sat up, she was wearing a fresh shirt and pants that were far softer than her old ones. Her arm was in a proper sling and cast, and her stomach was bandaged with clean cloth. There was a glass of water on the bedside table, she drank it and moved to get out of the bed.

The room was mostly empty, there was a dresser with clothes and shoes, she slipped a pair on that fit her, and smiled faintly at the flower pot in the corner of the rather cheery room. She wondered what kind samaritan had taken her in and tended her wounds, she hoped she hadn’t taken up one of their bedrooms. Though she’d think for lack of decor that this one was for guests.

She opened the door and found herself outside, a stone walkway leading past a few small huts with similar open windows and out of the sand and up a hill to a large house. She walked along the path, careful not to step in the sand, and marveled at the flower gardens and the fire pit. She saw a small group of people playing on the beach in the distance.

She finally reached the house and hesitantly opened the door, and she was met with a face she recognized- That was the half spirit boy she’d spared. Perhaps her good deed had come back to her.

“Uh, Leo was it? I just wanted to say thank you… and inquire where I was and if there is any transport to a city?” He gave her a smile, “Nice to see you again Brianna, I think anyways. You’re on Calypso’s Island, there isn’t really transport off, but I’m sure I could rig something up.”

Brianna nodded faintly, “Is there anywhere I can sit down?” she asked. Her mind was still spinning around what he’d said, Calypso was a goddess who lived on an island away from humanity, sometimes saving drowning sailors and those of good heart lost at sea.

Sure it was unexpected that she was  _ here _ , but maybe it wasn’t so odd. It also made sense, in a way, if one ignored the question of how he got here, that a half spirit made his home on the island. It was a place hunters wouldn’t come, he was good of heart, and he could be perfectly human without fear. And he was always in danger, so he wasn’t returning home once it had passed.

Leo directed her to the kitchen, she sat down, noticing the large number of chairs and empty spots. And then Calypso walked in, her soul stone sang, ringing in her ears, pulling at Brianna’s heart, because that was a goddess and she simply  _ knew  _ who it was.

“Brianna.” Calypso simply said with a nod. “Calypso.” she breathed in return. The goddess set a plate of greens and fruits in front of her and walked away. Brianna stared at the plate before taking an experimental bite. It tasted great, she smiled at Leo as he left the room, muttering about changes to some sort of boat.

Brianna began to think that maybe things wouldn’t be too bad. After all, she didn’t see any monsters here, only humans.

It was dinner and a large group of people came wandering in, she used the term ‘people’ loosely. Because she saw Annabeth and the merman, Percy. That was the witch Hazel and the shape-shifter Frank. That was Jason Grace, with an echo of the sky and the wind sounding around him, the girl by his side was a full-blooded fairy.

That was a half sun sprite, and that was a Death Angel, but Brianna stayed silent. There was nothing she could do, they were under the goddess’s protection for some reason. Her heart hissed against its restraints and her arm longed for her sword.

She stayed silent.

She found her sword, well, the merman found it and gave it to her. The monsters seemed to think she wouldn’t kill them if given the chance. She didn’t say anything otherwise.

There was a boat ready for her in just under two weeks. She left silently, wondering why a goddess would even speak to such creatures, why a hunter stood amongst them like friends, why Leo had decided not to be human.


	7. 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> End of Happiness

She’d never know, she couldn’t understand. She left hunting for flames, for smoke and ash. It didn’t make any sense, not to her. She questioned and wandered but never came to the right conclusion. And one day, skin covered in scars and mind full of answers she’d never accept, she found that what she’d been following wasn’t a fire spirit after all, but a phoenix.

She shot it in the heart.

Because all monsters are human.

And she was a hunter and she put out flames.

The next time she met a child with human eyes and inhuman powers, she knew now, why her mercy couldn’t be given, because a monster will always be a monster, no matter what.

Red blood dripped into the ground and the human the magic had spared for her mercies, became the very monsters the inhumans feared.

Because she’d always learned that she was human, but who was to say that the monsters weren’t the real ones.

Because monsters are always monsters, and all monsters are human.

**The End**


End file.
